HISTORICAL SOCIETY Mortarboard - C.D.P.H.S

Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society Newsletter Issue #94 — February— 2016

Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society Newsletter Issue #94 — February — 2016

Illu

stratio

n fro

m “

Th

e Telep

ho

ne R

eview,”

Feb

rua

ry, 19

14

.

A Growing Archive.

As assured in our mission statement, the Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society is “dedicated to the preservation of the history of our community,” and specifically “to the art of making this common heritage accessible to the public.” Our publications, both print and online, are currently the primary manifestation of that part of our mission. All prior editions of our newsletter — the Mortarboard — are available online without charge. All prior editions of the Mortarboard are also available as bound editions in a print-on-demand format for a small donation — said donation intended to cover our print cost. We also have four volumes of earlier archival material in a print-only set titled “The Reports.” For further information on our print titles, contact anyone in the “Society Contacts” box found on the last numbered page of this issue.

——— the Editor

The C/DPHS is an association of individuals dedicated to the preservation of the history of our

community. To the preservation of the region’s oral history, literary history, social history, graphic and pictorial history, and our history as represented by

the region’s artifacts and structures. To the preservation of this history for future generations.

To the art of making this common heritage accessible to the public. And to the act of collaborating with other individuals and

organizations sharing similar goals.

THE

CLAYTON/DEER PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Mortarboard © C/DPHS

Fre

e —

Ta

ke

On

e

Vis

it o

ur

web

site

at

htt

p:/

/ww

w.c

dp

hs.

org

Th

e C

/DP

HS

mee

ts a

t 9

a.m

. ev

ery

seco

nd

Sa

turd

ay

of

the

mo

nth

. J

oin

us

at

the

Cla

yto

n D

rive

-In

, C

layt

on

, W

ash

ing

ton

.

page 1217

… introduction …

The telephone had been demonstrated in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell in the east-ern United States.(1) Surprisingly, there were two relatively unheard-of inventors in the dash to patent the telephone; Bell and the lesser-known Elisha Gray. Both men had inde-pendently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. They rushed their respec-tive designs to the US patent office on the same day, but Bell arrived with proper docu-mentation two hours ahead of Gray and pa-tented his telephone first. Upon seeing the device for the first time, President Rutherford B. Hayes told Bell,

“That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?” Any description of the beginnings of telephone service in northeastern Washington starts with Charles B. Hopkins. Hopkins and his partner, Lucien E. Kellogg, had founded the Palouse Gazette newspaper in 1876 in Colfax, Washington. At this time the United States Signal Service was constructing emer-gency telegraph lines westward from Fort Mis-soula to Fort Walla Walla during the Nez Perce Indian War.(2) In 1883-84 the US Government aban-doned its military telegraph lines. Hopkins had obtained government consent to install telephone lines on the old telegraph line be-

Telephone Service Comes to Deer Park

by

Ken Westby & Peter Coffin (part one)

—— footnotes ——

(1) Elliott, Dan: “A Tale of Two Telephones: Competitive Telecommunications in Early 20th Century

Montana.” (http://dialmontana.com/#BellSystemSide) (2) “A Brief History of the Development of Toll lines in the State of Washington,” Don Ostrand, Telephone History Group.



page 1218 page 1219

tween Colfax and Almota, a small settlement on the Snake River, after buying over 100 miles of the telegraph line for a twenty dollar gold piece.(3) The subsequent extension of the telephone line for communication grew rapid-ly and reached Spokane in 1886. At that time W. S. “Billy” Norman, a real estate company owner, investor and associate of many of the important businessmen of Spokane, had estab-lished the Spokane Falls Telephone Company, with fifty subscribers.(4) Hopkins sold an in-terest in his telephone company to Billy Nor-man and together they reorganized under the name Inland Telephone and Telegraph Com-pany, operating under license from the Ameri-can Bell Telephone Company with Hopkins as general manager.(5) In December 1886 anoth-er telephone entrepreneur, Thaddeus S. Lane from Ohio, established the Home Telephone & Telegraph Co., in Spokane, an independent company featuring “automatic” telephone systems, unlike the Bell company’s “manual” telephones and switchboards.(6)(7)

The telephone exchange office for the Inland Telephone and Telegraph Company was built in the Hyde Building on the corner of Riverside and Wall. By November, 1886, Charles Hopkins had hired the twenty-one year old Thomas Elsom to install phone lines

in Spokane.(8) Elsom kept a personal diary, took many photographs of telephone line in-stallations, and became known as “Spokane’s first telephone installer.” In the next few years, telephone exchanges were established in several of the larger towns in eastern Wash-ington.(5) Hopkins and Norman consolidated long-distance connections in 1890 through their Bell-affiliated company, Inland Tele-phone & Telegraph.(9) In October, 1893, long-distance service was first established between Spokane, Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. The 750 mile line ran from Spokane south to Wal-lula on the Columbia River and from there, downriver to Portland. From Portland, the line ran through Vancouver, Olympia, and Tacoma to Seattle. The No. 10 hand-drawn copper wire was strung between live cedar poles that were 30 and 65 feet tall, and the signal was amplified every half mile.(10) The Spokane Fire of August 4, 1889, destroyed the Spokane telephone systems. After rebuilding their system, Norman and Hopkins sold half of the Inland Telephone and Telegraph Company to the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company — a holding compa-ny under American Bell (AT&T) in the Pacific states.(11) In 1901, The Spokane Falls Tele-

phone Company serving Spokane was ab-sorbed, along with other wider holdings, into the Inland Telephone and Telegraph Compa-ny.(12) Inland subsequently transferred its rights, privileges, franchises, and business to the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Co., also a Bell System company, serving over 3300 subscribers in Spokane according to an October 17, 1900, article in the Spokane Chronicle.(13) Pacific States Telephone Co. later became the Pacific Telephone and Tele-graph Company. In 1913, American Tele-phone & Telegraph Company acquired Thad-deus Lane’s Home Telephone Company, thereby eliminating independent telephone service in Spokane and establishing Bell’s dominance in that city.(14)

… telephone lines built north ...

The Deer Park area’s first settlers had arrived in 1882 when Henry Maxum and B. B. Rhodes came to Wild Rose Prairie.(15) Then in 1889 the Spokane Falls & Northern Railroad came through Deer Park. That same year, Washington was granted statehood, P. J. Kelly opened a store in Deer Park, and W. H. Short established the Short Lumber Company at the

town site.(16) Unfortunately, Elsom’s diaries for the years 1891-1896 are missing for the time peri-od that telephone lines were probably built north to Deer Park. Lillian Woodard’s and Bessie Eickmeyer’s paper, “The History of Wild Rose Prairie,” written in 1935, contains the following sentence: “The long distance telephone line established in 1895 still follows that old Colville trail from Deer Park to Woodward corner.”(17) This is the only direct reference that we have found that dates the construction of a telephone line to Deer Park. The “old Colville trail” is probably the wagon road north from Spokane up Dartford Creek to Austin Road and Wild Rose Road where it veered northwest along the bluff south of the Dragoon Creek Valley crossing Lillian Wood-ward’s land (W/2 SW/4 Section 35-TWP 28 N-RGE 42 E) until it intersected present day Dalton Road and thence north to Deer Park and not the Cottonwood Road which was lo-cated several miles to the east. This route is shown on a map titled “Pre-1913 Roads in the Clayton-Deer Park Area” in the article “Roads and Highway Development in the Clayton-Deer Park area”.(18)

Elsom’s diary pages for the spring of


(3) A Brief History of the Development of Toll lines in the State of Washington, Don Ostrand, Tele-

phone History Group (4)

An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Harvey K. Hines, p. 237, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1894 (5)

A Brief History of the Development of Toll lines in the State of Washington, Don Ostrand, Tele-phone History Group (6)

http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/327#.VOgZtlPF85A (7)

Spokane Daily Chronicle, June 26, 1976, pages 20-21 (8)

Ladd, D., 2000, Thomas H. Elsom, Spokane’s First Telephone Installer: Spokane, WA, Tornado Creek Publications, 128 p. (also The Pacific Northwesterner, Vol. 44, Issue 2) (9)

An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Harvey K. Hines, p. 237, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1894. (10)

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage+output.cfm&file_id=5571) (11)

Durham, Nelson Wayne: History of the City of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington, Volume 2, p.364.


(12) In 1901 the Spokane Falls Telephone Company, that first served Spokane, was absorbed along

with other wider holdings into the Inland Telephone and Telegraph Company, a Bell/AT&T com-pany. Inland subsequently transferred its rights privileges, franchises, and business to the Pacific States Telephone & telegraph Co., also a Bell/AT&T company, which later became Pacific Tele-phone and Telegraph Co. (13)

By October 1900, Pacific States Telephone Co. had 3375 subscribers in Spokane and plans to extend lines to Milan and later to Newport. (Spokane Chronicle, October 17, 1900, p.3, column 3) (14)

Elliott, Dan: A Tale of Two Telephones: Competitive Telecommunications in Early 20th Cen-tury Montana (http://dialmontana.com/) (15)

Pioneer Days Revisited, Historical Resources of the Deer Park Area, p. 34, “Deer Park will Live Over Old Days”, by Dorothy Rochon Powers. (16)

Spokane Falls & Northern Railroad comes to the Deer Park area in 1889. P.J. Kelly opens a store in Deer Park. Short Lumber Company established. (17)

Pioneer Days Revisited, Historical Resources of the Deer Park Area, by Nancy Fisher and Etta Bennett, p. 16 “History of Wild Rose Prairie”, 1935, by Lillian Woodward and Bessie Eickmeyer. (18)

Coffin, Peter: Roads and Highway Development in the Clayton-Deer Park Area, Mortarboard, Issue 36, (April 2011), p.445.



page 1220 page 1221

1899 contain many references to his traveling to Colville and Kettle Falls on business per-taining to extending pre-existing telephone lines to Republic and the Canadian mining area. Certainly during the 1890s a telephone line had been built to and through Deer Park. In June, 1897, a “Spokane & British Columbia Telephone Company” activated its telephone line between Spokane and British Columbia, passing through Deer Park, Colville and points north.(19) Although it began as a cooperative venture between that telephone company and Bell’s Inland Telephone & Telegraph Co., the cooperation soon broke down in a bitter dis-pute between the two companies. The Spokane Chronicle reported on January 8, 1900, that Spokane & British Co-lumbia Telephone Co. brought suit against Inland Telephone & Telegraph Co. for breach of contract by refusing interconnection at Spo-kane and by cutting down wires belonging to Spokane & BC Telephone Co. on its route

northward from Spokane to the U.S. boundary and passing through Mead, Deer Park, Clay-ton, Loon Lake, Springdale, Valley, Chewelah, Addy, Colville, Marcus, Bossburg, and Northport. Inland’s defense was that S&BC failed to abide by a contract require-ment to use only equipment made by the Bell System.(20) The matter was finally settled out of court in Bell’s favor, and the resulting loss of access to Bell’s long distance services brought about the financial collapse of the Spokane—BC telephone company. The Chronicle on December 7, 1901, reported that the Spokane & British Columbia Telephone Co. had failed to meet expenses, went into receivership, and closed its operations, except at Republic, Washington.(21) This wire-cutting incident likely did not affect telephone service between Spokane and Deer Park, since Bell Telephone seems to have been here from the start, most likely op-erating as Inland Telephone & Telegraph, and

that was around 1895 as stated in the “History of Wild Rose Prairie”. … telephone infrastructure in Deer Park …

Early photographs such as those in the Lawrence Zimmerer Collection along with local newspaper articles help greatly in piecing together the sequence of events in the develop-ment of telephone service within the commu-nity, and to a degree how this system became interconnected with rural “farmer-owned” telephone systems outside the town. This is discussed in the following pages, with photos presented in what appears to be the best chron-ological order starting with Figure 1 from be-

fore 1908. Additionally, two previous Mortar-board articles contain useful information when correlating these photos with the expansion of homes and businesses in the downtown area: Historic Deer Park’s City Center: Mortar-board, Issue 20 (December 2009), p. 253 (discusses the early business buildings along Main Street), and Kelly House: A House in the Center of Deer Park’s History Moves: Mortar-board, Issue 22 (February 2010), p.277 (establishes Peter Kelly and O.F. Kelly chro-nology). The photograph in Figure 1 (facing page, top) is the earliest in a group of photo-graphs used to document the building of a

Terminal Cabinet.

Drop cable.

Bell Telephone sign. Deer Park, southwest of the intersection of Crawford and Main

— sometime between 1898 and 1907.

Fro

m th

e La

wren

ce Zim

merer p

ho

to co

llection

.

Figure 1. Figure 2.

Facing south on Main Avenue at the intersection of First Street. Picture may have been taken from 1902 to 1908. John Beard, an early businessman, holds the tuba, and Ralph Ed-

wards, a Civil War veteran, was the flag bearer.

Fro

m t

he

La

wre

nce

Zim

mer

er p

ho

to c

oll

ecti

on

.


(19) Spokesman-Review, June 15, 1897, page 6, column 4

(20) Spokane Chronicle, January 8, 1900, p. 3, column 3.

Pacific Reporter, Volume 63, p.1117. (21)

Spokane Chronicle, December 7, 1901, p. 5, column 5.



page 1222 page 1223

telephone system in Deer Park. The two wooden poles opposite at the corners of the intersection probably supported a few over-head telephone wires by 1907. The photo-graph is not sharp enough to discern the wires. Telephone service is known to have come to Deer Park around 1895-1897, but may have served only two or three businesses, and some of that may have been dismantled in 1900 due to intercompany disputes.(20)(21) See page 1220. In November, 1907, the Spokane County Commissioners granted a franchise for a Deer Park telephone system to Louis Olson, A. M. Johnson, D. R. Throop and Anton Iversen.(22) Whether any new construction or service resulted from this franchise is un-known, and no further mention of it has been found to date. Inland and/or Pacific States

Telephone Co. had already established tele-phone service at Deer Park and, as we shall see, was operating a Bell Telephone exchange in the H. H. Slater Building well before this time. Figure 2 (page 1221, top) is poorly preserved but contains much information about early telephone service in Deer Park. The telephone pole has one cross-arm, and a “Bell Telephone” sign. A drop cable from a terminal cabinet beneath the cross-arm enters the 1902 Slater Building, where the Bell Tele-phone switchboard was first located. This photograph is the best evidence that the first telephone switchboard was located in the Slat-er Building. However, as that building didn’t exist prior to 1902, and since we know tele-phone lines from Spokane were brought to

Deer Park prior to 1900, it is likely that some sort of telephone “central” existed elsewhere in the town for a short time. It may have con-sisted of a single telephone in a business es-tablishment such as a hotel, store, mill, or boarding house, and shared by the community. Coin-operated phones were widely available by 1900, and these were often located in drug stores across the country. In any case it is noteworthy that a Bell operating company established a foothold in Deer Park by 1902 when the Slater Building was completed.

In Figure 3 (facing page) a second cross-arm has been added to the telephone poles on the west (left) side of the street. This second cross-arm could support ten additional telephone wires, providing five local tele-phone lines south, and five local telephone lines north, from the “central” switchboard located in the Slater Building at 1st and Main. The demand for local phone service at busi-nesses and homes continued to increase from 1909 to 1912, and, as we shall see, this de-mand was quickly met by adding even more cross-arms with even more wires to these tele-phone poles along Main Avenue. Electric power service was first brought to Deer Park in 1909 from a hydroe-lectric generating plant on the Little Spokane River near Milan. This establishes the date for the Figure 3 photo, because the photo shows the power poles being set on the east side of Main Avenue and awaiting the installation of cross-arms to carry the power wires. For safe-

Figure 3.

North on Main Avenue in approximately 1909. Jeff Moore’s saloon is on the left and the Olson Hotel, built in 1908, is on the right.

Ph

oto

gra

ph

from

the L

aw

rence Z

imm

erer collectio

n.


(22) Electrical World and Engineer (McGraw), Saturday November 9, 1907 and American Tele-

phone Journal (Chicago), November 2, 1907)

South along Main Avenue from Second Street in 1909-1910.

Drop cable.

Figure 4.

Detail, figure 4. Ph

oto

gra

ph

fro

m t

he

La

wre

nce

Zim

mer

er c

oll

ecti

on

.



page 1224 page 1225

ty and other reasons, electric power lines and telephone lines did not share the same poles, as is generally done today. All of the Law-rence Zimmerer photos show that these sepa-rate utilities are installed using poles placed along opposite sides of the streets. Figure 4 (page 1223) shows that the telephone poles have three cross-arms and the drop cable to the Slater Building connected to Pacific Bell Telephone’s “central” switch-board located there. This photograph was taken prior to construction of the Olson Build-ing across First Street south of the Slater Building (marked “drugs”) and the completion of the Slater Building expansion northward in December 1911. Various cross-arm configurations are seen in the photos along Main and Crawford streets in Deer Park between 1902 and 1913. Until 1912-1913, growth in subscriber base was served by adding more wires and more cross-arms as needed (see figure 5 below). Subsequently, the use of messenger cables was preferred. By 1911, telephone poles along Main

Avenue had been outfitted with four cross-arms each carrying 12 open wires as needed to support the rapid growth of telephone service in the town. Clearly, expansion by continued addition of cross-arms and open wires had to be avoided. Scores of open wires on cross-arms were unsightly and inadequate, and were so obstructive as to present physical and safety challenges for climbers attempting to install and maintain telephone lines. Eliminating (or reducing) the number of open wires and cross-arms was accomplished by using multi-wire rubber-jacked cables made up of fifty, one hundred, or more insulated wires of smaller gage, routed along streets and into building by means of telephone cables pulled through un-derground pipes or conduits, or telephone ca-bles supported between wood poles by means of a sturdy steel wire called a “messenger,” and this is visible in Figure 6 (facing page). A messenger wire is strung between poles and directly attached to poles as shown in Figure 7 (upper right, page 1226). Figure 6 shows that by 1912-13 the cross-arms on the telephone poles have been

reduced from four in 1911 to one, and the open wires having been replaced with multi-wire cable on the poles. The emergency call box on the pole beside the Kelly Building was required by Ordinances #45 and #47 enacted by the Deer Park City Council in January and March, 1912, and was mandated in the fran-chise subsequently issued to Pacific Tele-

phone Company.(23)(24)(25) By mid-May of that year the installation of the box was underway through mutual efforts of the town and tele-phone company, and it was reported at the May 14, 1912, Council meeting that this box was in place and ready for the phone to be installed.(26)

The telephone communication cable

Figure 5.

Evolution of telephone pole configurations 1902 to post-1912.

North on Main Avenue past Crawford Street taken in late 1912 or later, after the 2-story office building was completed next to the Kelly Building.

Figure 6.


(23) Deer Park Union, January 12, 1912.

(24) Deer Park Union, March 22, 1912.

(25) Deer Park Union, April 26, 1912.

(26) Deer Park Union, May 10, 1912.

Emergency call box.

Photo from Lawrence Zimmerer collection.



page 1226 page 1227

is securely lashed or clamped to the messenger wire in one of the ways shown in Figure 8-a and 8-b (above). The Deer Park local system contin-ued to use open wire lines on pole-mounted cross-arms in some neighborhoods as late as the 1950s before being replaced with messen-ger cable. But by 1912-1913, telephone poles along Main Avenue had cross-arms mostly replaced by multi-wire messenger cables of sufficient size to meet projected subscriber growth for several years. When their capacity was reached or the cables failed, they would be added to or replaced with cables of even greater capacity for expansion. We can’t be certain, but it is likely that the single cross-arm seen atop the poles along Main Avenue in 1913 (Figure 6) was reserved for wires used solely for long-distance lines in/out of the city for up to 50-100 miles. Open wire lines, of #8 or #10 gage, properly installed, transitioned, spaced, and supported on glass insulators were capable of carrying conversations over distances ap-proaching 100-200 miles between amplifiers, or “repeaters.” Technically, six wires could support three telephone conversations; or with the use of special “multiplexers” or “wire car-

rier” available by the early 1900s, six wires could support perhaps 18 or 24 simultaneous long-distance conversations between exchang-es. Within the local exchange, a tele-phone line required two wires and would sup-port one conversation. Local lines were of-fered as one-party “private” lines, or multi-party lines with 2, 3, or 4 parties per line. Ru-ral lines may have supported as many as ten or more parties. Users of multi-party lines were expected to share the line, respectful of others’ need for privacy. Multi-party lines could be offered at a lower rate than private lines be-cause more subscribers could be served over the same two wires strung along the poles leading away from the central switchboard. Each private line and each party line uses two wires, called a “wire pair”. The par-ty line has all of the parties' phones connected in parallel onto that wire pair, serving 2, 3, 4, or more parties. Each of the wire pairs coming from the many users (or “subscribers”) enters the switchboard office, usually combined within a group of multi-pair cables. With the older manual switchboard, or “cord-board,” each wire pair appeared on a numbered jack in front of the operator. The number on that jack

identified the phone number for that line, and/or the numbers assigned to each of the parties. The conversation was carried over that wire pair between the subscriber and the operator, once the operator plugged a cord into that jack (the cord was also connected to the operator’s headset). A dry-cell battery on the user’s premises powered the subscriber’s tele-phone. A large storage battery at the switch-board powered the operator’s handset/microphone. Years later the large battery at the switchboard office also powered the sub-scriber’s telephone. Only then was it neces-sary for battery current to also flow over the wire pair out to the subscriber’s loca-tion. Prior to that the wire pair was considered

“dry,” meaning that the wire pair between the switchboard and the subscriber did not carry battery power. The cord used by an operator to plug into a wire pair at the switchboard was actual-ly two cords, connected together in such a way that the second cord could be plugged into another wire pair, thereby establishing a con-nection between two different subscribers, or in the case of a long-distance call, between a local subscriber and a distant switchboard providing service to subscribers in another exchange area. Several of these two-cord cir-cuits were available at the operator’s switch-board position, allowing many simultaneous connections to take place. Additional circuitry

Figure 7.

Figure 8-a.

Figure 8-b.

Above left: Messenger cable pole installation. Above right — top and bottom: Typical means of suspending cable from the messenger wire.

Figure 9.

Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company’s switchboard in the west side of the Olson Building in 1921. Shown here are Norma Turner, Manager (standing),

and Ethel Hickey operating the switchboard.(27)(28)

Ph

oto

gra

ph

fro

m t

he

La

wre

nce

Zim

mer

er c

oll

ecti

on

.


(27) Deer Park Union, December 9, 1920.

(28) Parker, W. L., 2010, The Olsen Hotel Theater, Mortarboard, Issue 22 (February 2010), p.283.



page 1229

and lever switches in each cord combination allowed the operator to: (1) answer calls from subscribers, (2) place calls to subscribers, (3) listen-in on a connected call to ascertain if the call had ended, (4) “split” a connected call so the operator could speak with one party with-out being heard by the other party in the call, and (5) to apply a “ring” voltage to signal a subscriber to answer. Early switchboards re-quired the operator to operate a hand crank for this, but later switchboards incorporated a mo-tor-generator at the central office for produc-ing ring voltage. Switchboard operator duties in towns like Deer Park were not limited to simply con-necting callers. An operator was expected to answer all manner of questions such as time and date, who to call about what, and where the fire was. A small-town telephone operator in Kansas is said to have correctly answered a caller’s question, “what is the capital of Wis-consin?”(29) Such extracurricular duties were routine for operators in the small telephone exchanges.

A kerosene lamp hanging from the ceiling above the manager and an electric light hanging over the desk on the far right are seen in Figure 9 (page 1227). The partition behind the switchboard conceals wires and other ap-paratus associated with multi-wire cables en-tering from outside and connecting to the switchboard. This 1921 photograph was taken shortly after the switchboard “central” was moved from the Slater Building at First and Main to the Olson Hotel Building where it remained much as it appears in the photo until September 1951 when Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company replaced the manual tele-phones and switchboards with automatic “dial” telephones and equipment in Deer Park and the surrounding area. The automatic switching equipment was housed in a new brick building on east Crawford.(30) Today that building is expanded and houses modern-ized local and long-distance telephone ex-change equipment.

——— to be continued ———


(29) American Telephone Journal, April 4, 1908.

(30) Deer Park Union, September 20 and September 27, 1951.

Letters, Email, Bouquets & Brickbats

— or —

Bits of Chatter, Trivia & Notices All Strung Together

… credit due for prior story … In the minutes of the society's De-cember meeting (Mortarboard #93), Pete Cof-fin, in regards to new materials he was submit-ting for publication, wrote, “‘Stealing Gas in Big Foot Valley’ is a short story told to me by Lonnie Jenkins shortly before he died describ-ing thievery in that valley.” That prompted your editor to drop the following email to Pete

— this dated December 18, 2015. “I was checking to see if my pending (stories) file was up to date and discovered that I’d already put the gas stealing story in the ‘Letters/Brickbats’ segment of the Decem-ber issue (see page 1191). However, there is no attribution to Lonnie Jenkins. If you like, I’ll make a notation of attribution and place it in the next ‘Letters/Brickbats’ column.” Pete wrote back, “Yes, I would.”

As concerns the editorial observation regarding the identity of the Big Foot Valley perpetrator that your editor appended to Pete’s original script, it appears that Pete is still keep-ing that part of Lonnie’s story to himself. … a Deer Park Lumber Company artifact … The Mortarboard recently came into

possession of the above typed acknowledge-ment to a lumber order received from the North Butte Mining Company. Dated July 27th, 1914, the missive was signed by Ray Wilson of the Deer Park Lumber Company. The Deer Park Lumber Company letterhead was only a few months old at the time — as verified by the following quote from the April, 1914, issue of a Portland, Ore-

—— Sawmill Stationary with Logo ——

This recently obtained Deer Park Lumber Company order confirmation is in response to an eight railroad car order for fir planking received from the North Butte Mining Company. The order confirmation measures 8¼ inches wide by 7 inches tall, with the logo being just 1⅝ inch wide. The signature appears to be that of the co-founder and secretary/treasurer of the company, Raymond Wilson. Note the detail seen in the logo enlargement to the left.

page 1228



page 1230 page 1231

In attendance: Lorraine Nord, Mike Reiter, Roberta Reiter, Betty Burdette, Bill Sebright, Pat Parker, Wally Parker, Marilyn Reilly, Judy Coffin, Pete Coffin, Mark Wag-ner, Ella Jenkins, Sue Rehms, Roxanne Camp, Bob Peetz, and Chuck Lyons. Society President Bill Sebright called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM. He reported: 1) We have received dues from as far away as California, Arizona and Colorado. Nineteen households have paid dues. 2) Gary Ross sent

an obituary that included the name of a “Mason” from Deer Park. Pete Coffin could-n’t find the name on his “Mason” family tree. 3) He ordered and received “Registration Methods for the Small Museum.” It is a “how to” book for setting up a cataloging system for pictures, artifacts, etc. 4) He finished scan-ning the Costa collection that Carol Mattausch Crane gave to the Society at Brickyard Day. Pictures of Mira and Teno Costa were passed around.

Society Treasurer Mark Wagner re-ported: The main checking account ended the month (December 31st) at $7,426.68. Checks written were to Rotary for signs for $25.00. There were deposits of $349.00. The web hosting account had a withdrawal of $10.95 for web hosting and ended the month at $885.08. Society Vice President Pete Coffin reported that: Gerald Gimmel printed six of the Bennett/Fisher history book. His grandfa-ther had one of the first cars in the area. There was a mill on Dragoon Creek near Dalton Road. The old highway used to go through there. 2) Chuck Lyons brought a picture of “Old Buck” to Pete at the meeting today. Chuck has a tractor collection on Wallbridge Road south of the Happy Home Church. There will be more on this later. Print editor Wally Parker reported: 1) One hundred copies of the January Mortar-board (#93) have been printed for distribution. The online version has also been submitted for posting. This issue contains an essay based on the recently acquired panoramic photo taken at the Settlers Association’s 3rd annual picnic, June 19th, 1924. A short article by Pete Coffin titled “Jack Coffin’s Clayton High School Mis-behavior Leads to Work” is also included. The Letters/Brickbats column contains further comments on the impending disassembling of Deer Park’s classic gymnasium, and some thoughts regarding a vintage windstorm. 2) Fifteen copies of Collected Newsletters #25 have been printed and are ready for distribu-tion. This booklet combines Mortarboards #91 through #93. 3) Print Publications is sug-gesting that the society begin to take a more proactive approach toward increasing mem-bership. The rationale here is simple. We seem to have a shortfall when it comes to find-ing members that have the specific skills re-quired for certain projects, plus members that find themselves in a situation that allows them to donate the tremendous amount of time the above mentioned projects require. The likeli-hood of filling these talent/time deficits would be increased if we had a significantly larger

membership. Our usual means of advertising for membership has been to rely on the visibil-ity provided by the society’s participation in local events, and through our print and online publications. It’s remotely possible that a more direct appeal for membership will garner greater results. One possibility for said adver-tisement would involve illustrations and short, hopefully snappy text displayed through nov-elistic (for us) means such as postings on read-er-boards, free bookmarks left at strategic lo-cations, and, possibly, space in other publica-tions when such is not cost prohibitive. The initial problem with advancing such an en-deavor is that a volunteer coordinator will be needed to manage everything. 4) In last month’s minutes your editor reiterated a con-cern brought forward by society president Bill Sebright during November’s meeting. Bill

Suggested membership ad for the C/DPHS.

Minutes of the

Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society —— January 9, 2016 ——

gon, periodical titled The Timberman. “The new Deer Park Lumber Co., which recently bought out the Standard Lumber Co., at Deer Park, Wash., started its mill the latter part of March.” The above article went on to note, “W. M. Leuthold and R. L. Wilson, the princi-pals in the new firm, have transferred their offices from Fish Lake, Idaho, to Deer Park, Wash” — the noted Idaho property having been bought by the two in the fall of 1910. That purchase, formalized as the Wilson-Leuthold Lumber Company, was described in the October 1st, 1910, issue of Lumber World as “a new company in which Ray L. Wilson, vice president of the Acme Lumber & Timber Company of Spokane, and Walter Leuthold of St. Paul, are the principals.” Though unverified, it’s possible that the men had become acquaintances at least several years earlier, both having graduated from the University of Minnesota — Wilson in 1907 with a Bachelor of Law degree, and Leuthold in 1909 with a Bachelor of Arts de-gree. They continued the business relation-ship begun in 1910 until Wilson, in March of 1939, sold his interest in the Deer Park opera-tion to Leuthold. After leaving the Spokane area in the

fall of 1942, Wilson and his sons, Charles and Robert, built a successful sawmill business in the Warm Springs area of Oregon.

——— Wally Lee Parker ———

Raymond Wilson. July 21, 1883 — April 3, 1961

Ph

oto

from

“T

he G

op

her,”

Un

iversity of M

inn

esota

, 19

07

.



Editorial and Copyright Policy ———————————————————————————————-

Those contributing “original” materials to the Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society retain copyright to said materials while granting the Mortarboard and the Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society durable permission to use said materials in electronic and print media — including permission to reprint said materials in future Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society publications. Under certain conditions proof of ownership of submitted materials and/or a signed release allowing use may be requested. No compensation for materials submitted is offered or implied. All materials submitted are subject to editorial revision for content, language, legal exposures and so forth. Any material published as an exception to these general understandings will be clearly marked as to the nature of the exception.

—— C/DPHS ——

Society Contacts

We encourage anyone with observations, concerns, corrections, or divergent opinions regarding the contents of these newsletters to write the society or contact one or more of the individuals listed

below. Resultant conversations can remain confidential if so desired.

C/DPHS, Box 293, Clayton, WA 99110 Bill Sebright, President — [email protected] — (509) 276-2693

Peter Coffin, Vice-President — [email protected] Wally Lee Parker, Editor of Print Publications — [email protected] — (509) 467-9433

indicated that the growing mass of photo-graphs, documents, and artifacts in the socie-ty’s collection are on the verge of becoming — if they have not in fact already become — unmanageable. What is needed is some means of cataloging everything so that each artifact’s existence, makeup, associated data, and loca-tion becomes a matter of record. And then, after a system for cataloging has been con-structed, volunteers willing to devote the sig-nificant amount of time needed to sort through and index all the currently held materials — as well as the new materials constantly being added — will be needed. As a result of last month’s reiteration, society associate and pro-fessional software developer John Henry vol-unteered his expertise toward the creation of such a cataloging system. Since John doesn’t live in the immediate area, the back and forth needed to customize the system to our needs will be carried out primarily online. Any members or associates willing to offer input into the society’s needs regarding this catalog-ing system are urged to contact the society. From that point such volunteers will likely be drawn into at least some aspects of the devel-opment process. Any help would be welcome.

Webmaster Marie Morrill reported by email that: 1) She uploaded the January newsletter and figured out how to put in the year 2016. She will not be attending as she is in Florida enjoying her new granddaughter. Wednesday, February 10 will be the first Brickyard Day Committee planning meet-ing. We are still looking for a theme for this year's Brickyard Day. Last year it was the reunion of the Clayton School. We are trying to draw more people to the Clayton School on Brickyard Day. Mike Reiter reported that: He has heard no further developments on the Civic Center. Betty Burdette said: The Settlers Pic-nic fund raiser will be at the Deer Park Eagles, Saturday, March 5. There will be a dinner and silent auction. Betty mentioned that her 70th year reunion is this year. Next meeting: Saturday, February 13, 2015, at 9 AM at the Clayton Drive-In. Meeting adjourned at 9:49 AM. The Society meeting minutes submit-ted by Mark Wagner, acting Secretary.

——— end ———

page 1232

(Yearly dues: Twenty dollars per household.)

Get the Latest Scoop on Historical Happenings!

Join the Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society.

This organization is meant for those with a reverence for the past. For those believing lives long gone are still important.

For those believing tradition still has a place in the modern world. For those believing the richness of history can teach.

And for those that believe a community’s heart can be found in its history.

C/DPHS, Box 293, Clayton, Washington (509) 276-2693

Vo

lun

teer p

roo

fread

ers for th

is issue; P

ete Co

ffin, B

ill Seb

righ

t, Ch

arles S

tew

art, a

nd

Lin

a S

wa

in.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY Mortarboard - C.D.P.H.S

Documents